Our Mortality
by SugarPesticide
Summary: Recent threats from the merged evil teams have forced trainers to attend an academy in Cerulean, and not everyone is happy about it. But when Misty meets up with someone she hasn't seen in ages, things can only get worse. Based on the badfic My Immortal.
1. Rain

Harry Potter 7 is out, hooray! And if you're like me and can't go to the premiere, then hey, stick around, pull up a bowl of popcorn and watch unreality ensue!

Brief intro: this was originally planned to be the Pokeshipping one-shot in one of my other fics, Project Valentine. When I realized how long it was going to end up, though, I decided to use something else for it instead. Of course, the idea of writing _this_ fic was too good an opportunity to pass up, and the rest, as they say, is history.

As stated in the summary, this was "inspired" by My Immortal (yes, _that _My Immortal), but rest assured it is only similar in the events that happen, not in how it's all written. Here, I shall take that infamous tale, move it to the Pokemon world, flesh it out, and give it actual plot, characterization, villains, and believability. Oh, and make it more kid-friendly. That always helps.

tl;dr: Pokeshipping in a My Immortal-esque story. Yay.

* * *

**I. Rain**

So this is how it starts, is it? All right, then. My name is Misty Waterflower: youngest sister, Cerulean gym leader, and water Pokemon expert. At the risk of sounding full of myself, I really do know what I'm talking about when it comes to the water-type. Take my Gyarados, for example: he's one of the toughest Pokemon I've ever had, and when I first caught him he practically scared me to death. But it just took some time and trust to get him to warm up to me, and now we trust each other completely.

Things were okay for me, at least for a while. Trainers would put up a good fight, and it was actually fun in its own way. But then the crime syndicates merged to become a much bigger threat, to the point that traveling trainers would disappear daily. Pretty soon Professor Oak finally put his foot down, pulling some strings to have _all_ underage trainers sent to a single new academy for their own safety, who knows why.

Unfortunately, that included me.

Fortunately, it was being built here in Cerulean City, so no annoying moving-to-some-hick-town for me.

Unfortunately, life took a turn for the crazy from there.

Let me start from the top. It all started on one drizzling day, while I was busy studying for my biology test in one of the gazebos in the outdoor courtyard. I was trying to concentrate, seeing as this would be the first midterm of the year, and I sure as hell didn't want to have a bad start. But all of those rules and vocabulary sets were _so _confusing, even after going over them in class for the last couple of weeks. Try as I might, I couldn't get into the right mindset for it.

For a long while I just looked out at the rain outside the gazebo, watching the tiny droplets of water splash constantly against the surfaces of small puddles. As the courtyard grew gradually wetter and wetter, an idea started to form in my head, and I grinned mischievously to myself. I glanced around, double-checking to make sure nobody was around. But the place was as deserted as a tomb.

Without a moment's hesitation I set my notes down, pulled off my shoes and socks, and strode out into the rain. It was still just late September, and the humidity made the air feel pretty warm even in the drizzle, which by comparison was a sprinkling of tiny snowflakes. There was something about the atmosphere that made me feel really alive for the first time since I'd arrived at the academy, or perhaps it was the feel of damp grass under my feet. Whatever it was, I couldn't help myself from dancing around in the courtyard, barefoot, shivering and happy.

The sound of somebody giggling made me spin around, and I ended up losing my balance and landing hard on my butt. When I gasped at the impact, the giggling only grew louder, and I glared upwards, squinting through the rain as it began to fall harder, searching for whoever was watching. After a few seconds I finally noticed a horde of girls peering down at me from a second-story window, tittering like the ditzes they were.

I sighed to myself, trying to shake off the embarrassment. _Fire trainers,_ I thought, shaking my head. Who knows why, but there's something about people who train fire Pokemon that just irks me. Maybe just their general dislike for water-types. It's a likely enough theory.

"Go jump in a lake," I told them wearily. I hadn't meant to say it so loudly, but the giggling grew a bit more amused and obnoxious. More like them.

I waited for a while before the fire trainers finally grew bored of watching me sit in muddy grass; after all, I wasn't about to give them satisfaction by entertaining them more. Only once I was sure they had left did I push myself onto my feet, wincing at the feel of mud on my butt. I glanced behind me to look at how bad the mess was, then sighed. I had liked those shorts, too …

"Misty?"

I bit my lip. _Great, _I thought, wincing inwardly. _Someone still watching me look like a fool._ Putting my hands on my hips, whirling around and ready to give whoever it was a piece of my mind—

And I froze.

Standing there in the courtyard, not five feet in front of me, stood none other than my old travel companion, one who I hadn't seen in years and certainly looked it – but there was no mistaking that untidy black hair, the shape of that familiar cap, or the glint in his curious brown eyes. It was definitely Ash Ketchum.

My mouth opened, feeling the anger drain away as quickly as it had come. I tried to think of something relevant to say, even though my mind was jumping all over the place. _Of _course_ he would've become a student here,_ I realized, kicking myself mentally. _After all, he _is _a trainer. How did I not see him here before? But it's been so long, obviously … Has he actually gotten _taller _than me? That can't be right, it's only been a couple of years!_

I stood like that for a few moments before realizing that I was gaping like a stupid fish, and hastily shut it. Then I remembered that we were just standing there in silence, staring at each other like idiots, out in the pouring rain. Talk about awkward.

"Uh," I said, casting about wildly for something to break the tension, "what's up, Ash?" I cringed at how choppy and forced those words sounded. _Smooth, Misty. Real smooth._

"Nothing," he said, a bit too airily to be really casual. I hoped he was as relieved at the start of actual communication as I was.

_Good, good, _I told myself, thinking hard. _We're talking. What can I say now? And how the hell am I supposed to keep it from feeling completely awkward? It's not like I can say, "Look at how much you've grown," right? But what else is there to say? I don't know if we even have anything in common anymore … but he remembered my name, didn't he? And I remembered his face. That's a start, but where are we going to go from here—?_

"_Mist_! Like, what are you doing in the rain? Honestly, get in here before you turn into that warm ice we heard about on the newspaper!"

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath forcing myself not to shoot back a retort. "Hello to you too, Violet," I said as calmly as I could, turning just far enough around so that, when I reopened my eyes, I could only too easily see my three ditzy sisters staring at me like I was a particularly drab-looking fish. "Daisy, Lily. But if you haven't noticed, I'm in the middle of a conversation."

I didn't trust myself to look at Ash as I said that. He knew perfectly well how much our little awkward moment had qualified as a "conversation".

"Like, we know," Daisy said, pretending not to notice Lily snickering behind her. "But the sky's raining all over you, and there's mud all across your butt, and you _so _don't look like a girl right now. So come in here before you dissolve like Uncle Rhodes' Vaporeon."

I swear that if someone had held a thermometer to my face, it would have exploded.

"S-sorry, Ash," I stammered, far too embarrassed to glance at him. "I-I have to go."

And with that, I strode to the gazebo, picked up all my stuff, and hurried towards my sisters, hoping that maybe, by some miracle, he would forget that all that ever happened. But I could feel his eyes burning into my back as I left him behind, out there in my dancing ground in the rain.


	2. Reunion

I'm afraid I don't know who Diane is, sorry. :p But to clarify, this story is based on the infamous fanfiction My Immortal by Tara Gilesbie, starring Enoby or whatever her name was supposed to be at a given moment in time. I believe some brave soul reposted it here after it was taken down, in case you're curious. You know, for the lulz.

* * *

**II. Reunion**

When I was rudely awakened the next morning by sunlight streaming through the blinds, I sat up in bed, groggily wondering why the hell I was feeling so down. Then I remembered the courtyard fiasco of yesterday afternoon, and I cringed at the memory, feeling disgusted at everyone involved. Everyone, that is, aside from Ash. I wasn't sure why; I'd been more embarrassed by his sudden appearance than anything.

I put on my usual outfit, glancing at the locket around my neck as I did so. It was a shimmering silvery color, hanging on a thin delicate chain and decorated with a strange little symbol I didn't know, just above the keyhole. I had absolutely no idea where it had come from; all I knew was that, the day after receiving the letter about attending the academy, I had woken up with the thing around my neck. Since then, I'd had the strange feeling that I needed to wear it at all times, which bothered me at first – jewelry of any kind is not my thing, after all. By now, though, I had largely gotten used to it. It was easy to tuck under my shirt, after all, and as long as nobody mistook me for a girly girl, everything would be fine.

At least, that's what I told myself. To be fair, I didn't have a clue about what the whole business meant back then.

As I finished getting dressed and started getting around to brushing my frazzled hair, my roommate, Iris, stretched and yawned, opening her eyes blearily. She reached over to the Pokemon curled in a ball against her side, and the Kibago purred sleepily as Iris patted her head. Very carefully, she crawled out from beneath her blankets and out of bed, trying not to disturb her dragon too much.

"So I saw you talking with Ash the other day," she remarked as she changed out of her pajamas, giving me a mischievous look.

I paused abruptly, still staring into the mirror with my hairbrush in hand. _Exactly how many people saw that? _I thought darkly. "Yeah, I did," I said, keeping my voice as even as possible. "So what?"

"So do you like him?" she asked, peeking out from inside the shirt she was putting on.

"NO!" I shouted abruptly, rather surprised at myself for doing so. "NO, I DON'T!"

If Iris was shocked by my outburst, she sure didn't show it. "Yeah, right," she laughed, pulling her shirt over her head. "Come on, we'll miss breakfast."

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to try and stay calm as we grabbed our stuff and headed out towards the cafeteria. Looking over at Iris, who walked beside me without a care in the world, I felt a pang of guilt. She was really amazing, putting up with me like that.

We walked down a few sets of stairs and along a few halls before we reached that large room full of heavenly smells. To my surprise, though, we had just barely gotten in line when the person in front of us turned ever so slightly as he grabbed an apple – and I realized that I recognized him only too well.

"Ash!" I blurted, then slapped a hand over my mouth. It was definitely too big a mouth for its own good.

"Misty?" He looked around at me, and a smile instantly spread across his face. "Hey, Misty! How are … how are things?"

"F-fine," I stammered, hastily turning towards the food and grabbing everything within reach. "Just fine, thanks f-for asking, Ash. Man, I love talking to you Ash. D-did you notice how some of the puddles got a couple inches deep?" _Surely he can't see me blushing now, can he?_

I held back a wry chuckle at the thought. _Stupid question, _I laughed to myself. _He's _Ash, _the famed idiot hero. He doesn't _notice _anything that has to do with interpersonal stuff._

When I was sure that my cheeks were no longer flaming red, I turned to face him again and was rewarded with the sight of a rather concerned look. "Is this about yesterday, Misty?"

I sighed inwardly. _Then again, it _has _been a couple years …_

Not trusting myself to say anything, I just trailed along behind him in line, picking up anything that looked remotely good at the moment. I could practically _feel _Iris grinning like a wildcat behind me.

When we were at last out of the line and sitting down together at a table, I grabbed the first thing on my tray that caught my eye and hastily took a bite out of it. Then I spat it out, sputtering in disgust. To this day I'm still not sure how I managed to mistake a pepper omelet for a cinnamon roll.

Ash glanced down at his shirt, which was now dripping with egg and saliva. "Ah."

"Oh no!" I slapped my hands over my mouth, not quite muffling my agonized groan. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, Ash, I'm so sorry, I am so, I'm just so sorry, I can't believe I, can't believe I … all over you, ew, I can't believe I did that, I am so, so _so sorryyyy_ …"

Beside me, Iris hooted with laughter. Without turning around, I wished that the people now staring at my frozen back would kindly go on with eating their breakfast and forget that I existed.

Then I realized that Ash was chuckling.

"I guess I deserve that," he laughed, grinning at my astonished expression. "After your mess the other day, it kind of fits that I end up with one too."

Very slowly, I moved my hands from my face, still staring at him in disbelief.

"Hey," he said, holding up his hands defensively. "I mean it, Mist."

I stared at him some more. As Iris's giggles died down, I continued to stare at him.

Then I started giggling as well.

Ash grinned and took a bite out of his apple.

* * *

It turns out that before the whole academy business started, Ash was traveling around someplace called Unova, together with Iris and some guy named Cilan. Sort of like long ago, when he was journeying around Kanto with me and what's-his-name. I guess he was changing travel companions more than he changed his underwear, if his mom's advice was anything to go by.

"Why didn't you _tell _me Ash was here?" I blurted, once those two had stopped relating their Unova adventures to pause for breath.

"Well, you never told me you knew him!" Iris laughed, stirring what remained of her cereal with her spoon. "I didn't know it would've mattered!"

"Oh," I said. "Right."

Iris rolled her eyes, then stood and picked up her tray. "Well, I've got to run," she said, looking back at us. "Don't want to be late for Trig, after all. See you two later."

She tossed a knowing wink in my direction before heading away. I stuck out my tongue at her, but of course she didn't acknowledge it. Oh, that Iris.

"So," Ash began. Turning away from Iris, I looked back over at Ash, who had finished with his fifth apple and was setting the core down. "How have things been here in Kanto? We've told you about Unova, after all, so it's fair that you let me know everything that's been happening here." His eyes glinted. "I'm guessing Iris already knows all about Kanto already."

I rubbed my chin and thought about it. "Not much to tell, really," I admitted. "Team Rocket moved out of Kanto to join up with the other evil idiots, obviously. Besides that, it's been pretty quiet here. I did manage to get complete control over the gym, though." I smirked to myself at the memory: those ditzy sisters of mine whining about their poor water shows. It had been coming to them for a while. "It's kind of bittersweet, since I'm only able to go over there for the weekend. I did catch a few new Pokemon, though."

He nodded. "So did I."

"So I would've guessed, Mister Ketchum," I teased. It was so easy to talk to him, I realized. Once I'd gotten over that embarrassment, it was pretty easy to chat. Just like old times.

"Yeah, that's true." He grinned, running his fingers through that spiky hair I knew so well. He glanced out the window, out at the drizzling rain. "Hey, Mist, if you're not busy tonight, I was wondering …"

"Wondering …?"

"I was wondering if you'd like to go to a concert with me." He blushed ever so slightly, and it took a couple of seconds of watching his face to make sure I hadn't imagined it. "I've had two tickets for it for a while, but nobody I've asked wanted to go. It's just at West Cerulean Stadium, shouldn't be longer than a couple hours." He glanced up at me hopefully.

"Oh?" I asked, taking on a mock stern tone. "Are you asking me out on a date, Ash Ketchum?"

"Or an opportunity at reconnecting, whichever you prefer."

"Hm. Well, in that case, I guess I'm obliged to go," I said, smiling. "I only just met you again, and I can't just shrug that off, can I?"

He sagged in relief, just a little. "Great!" he exclaimed, pulling a ticket out of his pocket and handing it to me. "Meet you by the entrance gate at six-thirty then?"

"Sure."

"Awesome. Well, I have to head out. I promised a couple seventh-graders I'd help them study for a vocabulary test." He gathered up his incredibly-messy trays awkwardly, then started moving away, flashing a smile over his shoulder at me. "Catch you later, Mist!"

I smiled back, waving after him until he almost tripped over some short midget in glasses, forcing him to pay attention to where he was going. Chuckling to myself, I swallowed another mouthful of milk before glancing at the ticket to see who would be playing at the concert that night.

I almost choked. It was the Jonas Brothers.

It was very painful, but I managed to hold back my outburst until I was absolutely, positively certain that Ash had gone well out of earshot. Only then did I let it all out, oblivious to everyone's alarmed stares.

"FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU—"


	3. Connection

... Misty hadn't dated anybody yet o_0. And the fire Pokemon trainers are indeed supposed to be equivalent to the original story's preps. Although it will soon be made clear that it's not as black-and-white a situation as "prepz r su evl kuz dey rnt goffs lulz".

And I just realized that fire trainers are actually a very good counterpart to preps, considering what Tara accused the "preppy" reviewers of doing ...

* * *

**III. Connection**

When evening finally rolled around and the clock tower nearby had chimed five o'clock, I hurried back to my room from my study group. Iris wasn't there. I wondered vaguely where she'd gone – after all, she usually spent the evenings studying here, or else headed over to the gym to practice her acrobatics. But her books were all messily stacked on her desk, and I could see her gym shorts peeking from one of her half-open drawers. Strange. She usually let me know what was going on.

Naturally, I shrugged it off, dumped my stuff onto the floor, and considered what to wear. It took me all of five seconds to decide on just my usual outfit. After all, it wasn't as if Ash was going to care what I looked like. And besides, it was a Jonas Brothers concert. There was no point to dressing up.

With that business taken care of, I sat down at my desk and rummaged through my backpack, pulling out my algebra textbook with a sigh. There was still an hour and a half before we were supposed to be heading over there. I might as well do something productive in that time.

Not that it was easy to be productive when meaningless variables danced before my eyes, of course. Algebra was pretty depressing. So on the whole, that little studying session might have meant nothing if it wasn't for problem thirty-four, another long word problem that I might've just skipped over completely if I were just a little less awake:

_34. Sam is interested in the sales that his movie theater has made that year. When he interviews the manager, he receives data on the movies_ Psycho, Ocean's 11, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Forbidden Locket, _and_ Pollyanna_. __Use the information in the table below to create an equation for each film showing the relationship between the number of tickets sold per day and the number of days since the film's opening—_

My eyes, which had been starting to droop, snapped open. _"Forbidden Locket"? Wait, what?_ Hastily backtracking through those tedious words, I reread the problem, making sure that I hadn't just imagined those sentences. It strongly reminded me of that silver locket hanging around my neck, hidden even now underneath my shirt.

_Odd,_ I thought, double-checking the nearby problems to make sure that none of them were related to this one. _Very weird coincidence. It could be just something they made up … no, that's not it. The ditzes watched _Psycho _just a couple weeks ago and freaked the crap out of themselves, and that Swiss one sounds familiar too. Hm._

A quick glance at the clock told me that I had just ten minutes to meet up with Ash. Stifling a yawn, I snapped the textbook shut, stood up, stretched, and looked in the mirror to make sure my hair hadn't inexplicably turned into a nightmarish mess. _I'll look into it when I get back, _I told myself, starting towards the door. _If it's listed with well-known movies, there's got to be _something _on it._

Of course, if I had known what was going to happen later on, I wouldn't have just brushed it off.

* * *

The gate wasn't particularly intimidating. It was more or less just a pair of large double doors set in a tall metal fence that circled around the entire school and grounds, opened by using a key or scanning a card. Still, the fact that it was the only normal way to leave the place gave it quite a bit of respect.

I waited just outside, looking up at the dark, overcast sky above. It was probably going to rain again. Even in spite of the embarrassment the day before, I hoped it would. There really was nothing like a fresh autumn rain.

A large shape swooped out of the sky, growing rapidly closer. I jumped in surprise as it resolved into an enormous gray-and-white bird Pokemon, with none other than Ash riding on its back. With a flutter of huge wings, the bird slowed to barely a hover just before touching down, looking rather pleased with itself.

"Hi Ash!" I exclaimed, trying to get over my surprise.

"Hi!" he called back, grinning like an idiot. "Ready to head out?"

I approached a bit nervously, wary of the bird's sharp beak and claws. "We could have walked there just as easily, you know," I told him.

"I know," he agreed, "but there's a whole bunch of traffic all the way up to the stadium, so going on foot would be kinda tricky. I guess the concert's a big enough deal that people are just swarming."

Which, sadly, was a good point. People never became fans of things that were important, apparently. Or at least things that could actually sing.

Reaching the bird's side, I half expected it to turn around and eat me; but all it did was lower itself slightly, letting Ash help me up behind himself with ease. "It's okay," he told me, noticing my expression. "Staraptor's all right, he's really very gentle."

Staraptor cawed indignantly, then suddenly spread his wings and thrust them downwards, and with a rush of wind we were airborne. For several long seconds he continued to push himself upwards, and the ground below us shrank until I was half-convinced that the entire Academy was just a tiny toy. Then the bird glided forward, only flapping his wings occasionally as we left the Academy behind and soared above the other buildings of downtown Cerulean.

"Mist?" Ash called in a strained voice.

"What?"

"You don't have to squeeze me to death, you know. Not used to the acceleration?"

I glanced down at my arms, realizing for the first time that they were locked tightly around his torso, as if trying to cut him in half. "Uh, yeah, that's it," I agreed nervously, loosening my hold a little. "Gyarados doesn't fly up so sharply, either."

"Gyarados? Oh yeah, Togepi Kingdom, right? Pretty cool. He took out that big thing pretty easily."

"Tell me about it! He's listening to me more now. I've actually been trying to teach him a couple of moves lately, even though that hasn't gone over very well so far."

"Which ones?"

"Well, one is Earthquake. You know, to cover his weaknesses. And the other one's Waterfall – I was talking to Wallace a while back, and he was considering teaching it to one of his Pokemon. You know, to help it look hardcore in those stupid Contests. And it sounds like the perfect move for Gyarados, really. He's having a bit of trouble with it, though."

"Oh, Waterfall's cool. I'm thinking about teaching it to Samurott, actually."

"You have a Samurott?"

"Oh yeah, from Unova. He's been with me for a while …"

We talked like that for the rest of the flight, comparing what we'd done during those long years of separation. I told him about the abandoned Squirtle I'd taken in, and his rivalry with my Seadra; he told me that he'd gotten a Serperior and Emboar from Unova, as well as a Samurott. I managed to hide my displeasure at this news, but barely. After all, this meant he owned two fully evolved fire Pokemon, counting Charizard! Granted, he was a fun guy, but this fire thing was starting to get out of hand …

Eventually Staraptor swooped down and landed right outside the stadium. As we climbed off of his back, I realized that Ash hadn't been kidding about the traffic thing: cars were practically locked in a standstill up and down the street, honking like crazy. I sure wouldn't have wanted to weave back and forth between them.

Ash recalled Staraptor to his Poke Ball, led me into the stadium, and presented our tickets to the guy at the ticket stand.

Then we were through.

To this day I don't know how we survived that place. Apparently the concert had already started, because the stadium was packed with squealing fangirls who were jumping all over the place and swarming up to the stage, mercifully almost blocking out the sight and sounds of the stupid performers. Meanwhile, their parents and boyfriends, who seemed to have been likewise dragged along against their wills, were standing to the sides awkwardly or shrinking into their seats. I felt for them.

"This is cool," Ash yelled over the noise.

I was instantly torn between calling him the world's biggest liar or the world's stupidest person. Of course, that would've been rude even for me, so I settled with a simple, "You're kidding, right?"

"What?" he called, cupping his ear.

"I said, 'you're kidding, right?'"

"What?"

"Ash, are you even listening to me?"

"What?"

"Ugh, never mind." I shook my head, watching in disgust as the fangirls shrieked along to indistinguishable lyrics. "It's pretty sad," I said to myself, gritting my teeth. "What's worse is that their stupid chaperones got dragged into taking them here … which might lower the empathy factor, but then again—"

I paused, catching sight of Ash's suddenly downcast expression. It took me a moment to sink in.

_Oh, come on, _I thought in exasperation. _How did he manage to hear _that? _Honestly … _Still, I'd apparently hurt his feelings, which I hadn't meant to do. "Ash!" I called, and he glanced up at me. "Look, when I said they were stupid, I was generalizing. I didn't mean you were stupid, really I didn't. You see, the truth here is that … I really don't like this band. I really, really don't. And I wouldn't have come at all, ever, if you hadn't asked me to. It's not you, it's them."

I wasn't sure how much of that he'd managed to catch, but the weak grin assured me he'd gotten the gist of it. "Oh," he said, sounding relieved. "You don't like them either? Good. So I guess you don't mind if we leave, then?"

"Understatement of the century," I said, grinning back.

We managed to navigate our way through the ridiculous, shifting crowd, ignoring the fangirls shrieking at us and asking us to go and get some autographs for them. By the time we'd managed to get back outside, we were practically crawling on the sidewalk from exhaustion.

"I never actually wanted to go to their concert," Ash explained tiredly, letting out Staraptor and helping me climb aboard before swinging onto him himself. "But girls apparently do, so I got a couple of tickets and hoped to at least find someone for a date. Apparently none of the other girls like them, either … I'm sorry, Mist. I should've at least warned you about what was going to happen in there."

"It's … it's all right," I panted, patting his shoulder. "Like I said, if it were anyone else, I would've called it off immediately."

"Well … thanks," he said with an uncertain chuckle, as Staraptor spread his wings and took off again.

As we flew over the mess of cars still trying to find a decent parking spot for an indecent show, I thought about what Ash had just told me. Had he really been asking all sorts of girls to go with him to the performance? If he did, then what did that make me? The exact sort of person he'd been waiting to take on the date? Or just some lucky last resort?

He was a great guy, true, but the problem still bothered me.

When we reached the Academy, Ash didn't bother with the gate. Instead Staraptor simply soared over the fence, flapping his wings as we flew over the grassy grounds and, to my surprise, turned towards a grove of trees and away from the main Academy building.

I guess there was more to our date than he'd let on. Of course, if I'd known what was going to happen beforehand, I would've jumped off of Staraptor's back, fallen fifty or so feet, and taken my chances in a hospital with several broken bones. At least I would've been able to actually understand what was going on.


	4. Contact

Tara Gilesbie why do you make your chapters so short :/

* * *

**IV. Contact**

"What—?" I asked, before I was forced to cling to Ash for dear life as Staraptor sharply turned downwards into an abrupt nosedive. Wind rushed past us in a rush of sound, and I couldn't help but panic just a little at how quickly the ground was rushing up to meet us. Just when it seemed impact was inevitable, though, the bird fluttered his wings a few times, easily slowing his descent enough to land softly on the ground.

"You okay, Mist?" Ash asked.

"Yeah," I lied, still feeling a bit shaken by that sudden motion. "What're we doing here, anyway?"

As we slid off of Staraptor's back, one of us rather more unsteadily than the other, I noticed that the little grove was actually well situated to be in a more secluded section of the grounds, hiding us from anyone in the main building who might glance out a window in our direction. The situation puzzled me. Why would Ash have Staraptor bring us here?

A chilly breeze began to pick up, rustling leaves. Shivering slightly, I glanced up through the branches overhead, watching the deep gray clouds shift and broil. It was already getting pretty dark, probably less than an hour before nightfall, and that homework was going to be due tomorrow. I folded my arms, wishing I'd at least brought a jacket, and hoped that this wouldn't take long.

"Well …" He bit his lip, glancing off to the side at Staraptor, who had fluttered off a short distance to go after a Caterpie. "I kind of … kind of wanted to talk to you about something."

"Sure," I told him, not one iota less confused. "What's up?"

He shuffled his feet slightly, and it suddenly struck me that he was feeling just as awkward about this as I was. "See, the thing is, I … I've had something that's been on my mind for a while. Ever since I first got invited here, actually. I've been wondering about it a lot, and it's been bugging me, and when I saw you the other day, I had this weird, uh, weird feeling that you might be able to help, or something. I mean, you always knew what to do, back when we were traveling together." He looked up at me uncertainly. "I didn't think it should be something to do when everyone's just around, you know, they might think I was weird or something …"

I frowned slightly, mulling over what he was trying to say. Was he asking me to help him figure something out? I wasn't exactly a brainiac. He did look rather lost and confused about it, but—

"I got this," he blurted, reaching beneath his shirt and pulling something out.

I froze, mouth half-open in a regretful decline, eyes wide.

Hanging from a thin silvery chain draped around his neck was a strange-looking key, markings almost hidden beneath the pinching of his finger and thumb.

"This is going to sound really stupid," Ash said, looking embarrassed, "but I just woke up with it one morning, already wearing it for some reason. I sort of want to take it off, but it's … it's like I can't make myself do it, or something. Like I'm _supposed _to be wearing it. But I honestly have no clue what it all means and—"

He abruptly paused, staring in the direction of my chest. I was about to shoot him a snappy comment about it, when a motion caught my eye, catching my attention as well.

I had pulled my locket out without even realizing it.

For what seemed like a long time, we could only stare. I vaguely noted for the first time that everything was hushed, as if a storm would be heading in soon.

"We …" My voice died in my throat; what could I possibly say?

Slowly, Ash lifted the key, giving me a questioning look. I raised the locket as well, a bit of curious excitement peeking through my surprise. For so long I'd been at a complete loss as to what it meant, finding myself wearing a bit of _jewelry _of all things. Nothing had hinted as to where it came from. But now Ash had something like it as well, and if his key could fit the locket's keyhole … maybe I could finally figure out the mystery of this thing!

Oh naivety, how I hate you in retrospect.

With a slowness that seemed almost agonizing, he moved his hand forward, eased the key into the keyhole, and, as both of us held our breath, began to turn.

**An explosion of light and water**

_Where … where did Ash go?_

**Color waves density half crushing half liberating everything is here and here and here and there and here**

_What is, what, what am I seeing?_

**Leaf veins life pulse breath and matter through self through parent through roots pulsing pulsing life**

_It's so _much …

**Breath life self everything softness everything blades stone and crystal shimmer within stolid without motions through motionless pulse of life and light and everything is real is real is real**

"What the hell are you _doing?_"

Something slammed into us, and I toppled downwards, eyes widening in shock as I was pulled back into reality, lungs pulling in a gasp of air. I barely felt myself hit the ground: my mind was reeling, completely at a loss as to what I had just seen. Everything seemed so alien …

A face loomed into view. I blinked in surprise, taking a second before recognizing the newcomer to be none other than Professor Oak. Yet his expression was unfamiliarly etched in fury, as if he'd just come across someone who didn't deserve to live. I'd never seen that look on his face before, and I wouldn't mind if I never saw it there again.

Partly out of nervousness, I glanced down, noticing the locket sitting innocently on my chest. It was still closed, exactly as before; I supposed that Ash's key had been torn out of it when we had been hit.

There was a concerned squawk, which I supposed came from Ash's Staraptor.

"What …?" I asked weakly.

"You two," Professor Oak said, in a strained voice just barely on the brink of shouting, "will come with me. _Now._"


	5. Defendant

**V. Defendant**

I'd never exactly been to Professor Oak's academy office before.

The closest I'd come to it was on the very first day of school, in which I'd somehow headed in the exact opposite direction I should've gone and wound up in the administrative wing. Even then I hadn't noticed it until some emo kid came storming out the door, mumbling something about pathetic weaklings and how training was going to hell and so on. And that, of course, ended up bugging me so much and so quickly that I'd immediately dropped everything and socked him in the face, hard enough to bruise my fist. Then I grabbed my stuff again and ran like hell, since I sure didn't want to get sent to detention on the first day. And amazingly it all worked out – I'm pretty sure I'm the only student who's broken any sort of rule in the administrative wing and gotten away with it.

But now we were undoubtedly heading in that direction, moving through the lawn's carefully mowed grass, with the Professor ahead of us by a couple of paces. He was muttering to himself under his breath, a noise that was welcomingly dull after the explosion of whatever.

My head was still spinning quite a bit, overwhelmed from that surreal experience. What was I supposed to make of it? Even now, flashes of the weird colors and sensations still danced behind my eyes …

Something touched my shoulder. Looking to the side, I noticed Ash watching me with concern in his eyes. I wondered if he'd felt the same way. Had he been overcome with the strange force too? Or was it just me, doing who knows what while he stared at me in shock and fear? I wondered vaguely how I looked at the moment. Had my eyes changed color or something? They'd better not have …

Hopefully I hadn't gone into a seizure or anything. Not that I knew a lot about seizures, but they were freaky as hell in the movies, and people usually ended up possessed or dead afterward. Didn't they usually happen to old people? Then again, if it'd really been a seizure, the Professor probably would have called for medical help instead of snapping at us. So that guess was out.

To my faint surprise, the Professor circled around the administrative wing instead of making a beeline for one of the closer entrances. Normally I would've cared wondered about this, but then again, normally I wasn't totally out of it. It's not like it would have made a difference anyway.

"There you are! Professor Oak!"

"What—? Ah!" the Professor exclaimed, as two women rushed out through a door in the administrative wing.

"Where'd you run off to?" Officer Jenny asked, slowing to a brisk walk as she and her companion drew close.

"I'm very sorry, Officer Jenny, Miss Jessica, but I'm afraid something has come up—"

"Does it have anything to do with that weird flashing thing you pulled out of your pocket?" Miss Jessica huffed, red-faced and dripping sweat down her fancily done pink hair. You'd never guess she was the PE teacher, I swear.

"That's neither here nor there," the Professor replied a little sharply. "We'll have to reschedule in light of—"

"Considering how fast you just bolted, I think it is," said the Officer, hands on her hips.

"Officer Jenny, you have nothing but my respect. I like to think I have some from you in return."

The Officer reddened slightly. "… Very well," she said. "But the—"

"The assault charges will have to wait, I'm afraid. This matter calls for greater immediacy."

The two women looked at us, then at each other. "If you insist, Professor," the Officer almost growled, brushing past us towards the gate. Miss Jessica shot us an odd look before turning and jogging back to the castle, looking extremely ridiculous in her puffy dress.

With that, the Professor began to walk off again, and we followed him past the greenhouse, across a training field, and towards a run-down, shabby shack. Everyone knew about the shack: a weird little construct looking extremely out of place, looking more like a historical relic than anything that would actually be used. It was supposed to be off-limits to all students, but there were rumors that not even the teachers were allowed to set foot inside. Of course, in light of the Pokemon training crisis, no one had given the mystery more than a brief thought.

The fact that the Professor produced a key and easily fit it into the lock probably confused Ash, although I just stared at it blankly. It wasn't that surprising, really. Almost as if I'd already known it was there.

There was a single dark, dank room inside, filled with whirring electronics and flashing colors and other things I couldn't be bothered to look at directly. The Professor strode towards what was probably a computer, leaning over to look at something while Ash and I stayed put just past the threshold. We watched with vastly differing degrees of interest as the Professor pulled something out of his lab coat pocket, glanced between it and the computer, mumbled something under his breath, and hastily typed something before quickly turning around to face us.

"Why," he said in a voice of strained calm, "would either of you even think that experimenting with those artifacts could _possibly _be a good idea?"

"Professor—"

"Remember what I told you before Unova, Ash? I warned you to be careful after we heard about the Galactic incident, but you started your next journey barely even thinking about what you were doing! Then there was the Plasma crisis, but we know how well _that_ turned out. I can't always …" He took a deep, frustrated breath, shaking his head in disbelief. "Ash, what were you and Misty _thinking? _I can understand her doing this, since I'm nowhere near her mentor figure and—"

"Leave Misty out of this," Ash growled.

"Ash, you need to listen to—"

"No, Professor, _you_ listen," he interrupted again. "Neither of us know what happened, neither of us could've guessed that would happen, and – we wanted to know what would happen. Well, we've learned our lesson. But in case you want to keep chewing us out, it was _my _idea to bring it up, not Misty's. I couldn't care less if you kick me out, but you won't be punishing Misty for something that wasn't her fault."

I blinked, feeling his echoes vibrate through the shack and his hand tighten on my shoulder. Why would he be sticking up for me? I went through with it, I probably didn't deserve any pity. If one of us was going to be expelled for whatever reason, it should probably have been me.

There was a long moment of silence before the Professor sighed. "I wasn't going to punish either of you, Ash."

"… But you said—"

"I know you were curious about them, it's just …" The Professor sighed, running his fingers through his gray hair. I distantly wondered when it had started developing streaks of white in it. "It's been a very confusing time lately. Some of my colleagues out in the field have been making some troubling discoveries out of late, and I have to admit it's taken quite a bit out of me. Forgive me if I came off as harsh, both of you. I was simply worried someone had been badly injured, or worse.

"You see, after an archeologist friend of mine told me about yet another half-translated prediction about the end of the world, I began to wonder if there was something to the fact that we were finding so many of them in so short a period of time. So I invented the Forewarninator." He lifted his hand, indicating the softly whirring remote control-like machine he was holding. "It indicates in what direction a dangerous event is occurring, and how bad it is," he explained, tapping the faintly glowing light fastened to one end. "You can imagine how shocked I was when it began to blare like a siren and almost blind Miss Jessica during our meeting. Even last month's shooting five blocks away had nowhere close to the same reaction!

"And when I saw that key and locket … well, to be honest I have no idea of their significance in and of themselves. Those symbols on them, however, were found on a few of those ancient prediction records, along with several other, similar symbols. It's reasonable to guess that they're connected." He forced a nervous chuckle. "Who knows? You might have triggered something disastrous."

Ash was silent, pondering on his story. I imagine his brow was all scrunched up into his "clueless" face, the way it usually is when he has no idea what's really going on. But as for me, behind my frozen face, I kept remembering the sheer overload of whatever it was, rushing through me in an unstoppable wave, crashing down, or perhaps up, on my mind …

And it could have set off the apocalypse.

I shuddered, and felt the hand on my shoulder grip me tighter.

"Well," the Professor said, "I'm sorry if I frightened you at any point over the last twenty minutes. I really was afraid that the end had suddenly come … But I must ask both of you not to fool around with those artifacts again. I don't know how you got your hands on them, but to be honest I think they're safer with you than anywhere else. After all, there's only so much wealth of knowledge I can store in here before the rumors draw unwanted attention."

They talked a bit more, but the throbbing in my head must have gotten loud enough to drown everything out, because the next thing I knew the two of us were walking through the main building's main hall, thankfully empty aside from two oblivious older kids making out. I stumbled a bit, shocked at suddenly finding myself there.

Someone caught me, halting my fall. As I was pulled back upright, Ash's worried face came into view, staring into my own.

"Sorry," he mumbled, suddenly looking embarrassed. I couldn't understand why; I should have been thanking him.

He guided me down a few corridors, up a few staircases, and towards the girls' dorms. We passed by a few doors before he paused, glancing about in confusion. It took me a moment to understand that he'd never been to this part of the school before. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about that fact. He probably wasn't supposed to be there anyway.

"It's close," I managed to say, and I felt him jump a little. "I can go the rest of the way."

He stopped, and the world seemed to jerk around me from the seemingly sudden lack of motion. "You sure?" he asked.

I bobbed my head a little. I could probably crawl there if I tried.

Slowly, he let go of my shoulder, letting me get used to standing on my own again. After wobbling a little, I managed to balance myself, albeit still slumping a little.

"Mist …" He paused, and I could practically hear the silence that followed. The various hums and whirs of electricity and plumbing and girls talking in their rooms … It reminded me too much of what had happened earlier, and I couldn't repress a small shiver.

"Mist," he tried again, "I'm ... I … If I'd known that … that it'd end up doing _that_ to you, I wouldn't have suggested it. I wouldn't have brought it up, even." He grunted in disbelief at his past self. "Man, I screwed up, didn't I."

I didn't answer. I was growing too tired to think, and it didn't seem to matter whose fault it was anymore. All I needed was some sleep—

Then I stiffened slightly as he drew me in close to him, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug, one hand half pinning my arm to my side, the other guiding my head to his shoulder; as his head leaned against mine I felt, for the first time that evening, completely safe, wrapped up in his embrace and away from the world outside.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, and I thought I could feel a droplet cling to my hair.

I don't know how long we stood there. I don't know if I hugged him back, or if either of us cried, or if anyone passed us by and stared. But I do know that, in spite of the incredible fiasco the evening had become, in spite of all the terror I knew had filled us both, in spite of nearly having my eardrums blown out by incompetent boy bands … somehow, in a really messed-up way, it had all been worth it.

I'll be honest. It was a bit of a blur after that, when I stumbled into my room and dropped my keys on my desk, groping around in the dark for a minute before finding my bed and collapsing into it. That was okay with me; after everything that had happened, it was pretty nice being able to fall straight to sleep the second my head hit the pillow.

I still wish the locket problem could have ended just as easily.


	6. Discussing

**VI. Discussing**

The first thing I noticed when I woke up that morning can be summed up like so: I felt great.

Really great.

As in, take-on-the-world-without-breaking-a-sweat great.

With a surge of energy I pushed myself out of bed, landing on my feet easily. I glanced over into the mirror, and a chuckle escaped me when I noticed I'd automatically struck a pose. Still grinning, I shook my head and rummaged through my drawers, searching for my usual outfit. _This is going to be a _very_ interesting Friday, _I thought wryly, though beneath that train of thought I wondered why there was a sudden _oomph_ to the day …

It took me getting dressed, brushing my teeth, and staring down at my falsely innocent locket to realize that there was something wrong with this picture.

Iris wasn't there.

I cautiously stepped over to her bed. Not bed anymore, really, just a mattress propped up on a four-legged metal frame. Excitement started to ebb away as I poked the mattress tentatively, as if that would magically make her many blankets and pillows reappear. Yeah, right.

I looked over at her desk. Nothing there – no laptop, no books, no open sticks of deodorant, nothing.

Peeking under the mattress: nothing.

Glancing through her tiny closet: nothing.

Looking in her shelves: nothing.

Running my fingers along her shelves: nothing, if you didn't count a disgustingly thick layer of desk.

I leaned against my bed, staring at her half of the room. Shouldn't she be right there, sleeping dangerously late like she always did on weekdays? Axew too, snuggled up next to her like a puppy …

_Where is Iris?_

It could have been a practical joke. Maybe this was like that time when she'd lured that green-haired guy into an unused classroom, only to dump a bucket of … something … all over his head. Yeah, I told myself, that had to be it. She'd just moved all her stuff out of the room, that's all, and I'd start freaking out enough to fly out the door and run out the hall and down the stairs and into the cafeteria while acting crazy like a cat on fire, only to be met with people snickering at me and Iris's stuff sitting in the middle of the room, with her lounging on the top of the pile like a queen, and we'd all have a good laugh afterward and hear everyone tell the story for a while afterward …

Although that still didn't explain all the dust.

Shivering slightly, I grabbed my books and headed out of that weirdly empty room.

* * *

I wasn't in any particular hurry when I entered the cafeteria. After all, there was a whole hour before my first class! Sure, I was still a bit nervous about the Iris thing, but that satisfying feeling from earlier was coming back to me, and it was really hard not to strut about the place like some goth kid in a music video. Speaking of which, that purple-haired emo guy I'd punched at the beginning of school was glaring at me from across the cafeteria. I couldn't be bothered to go punch him again, so I basically told him to talk to the hand as I turned and went to stand in line.

Once there was plenty of food on my tray, I swiveled around energetically, already tasting the sweetness of milk and cereal as I considered which table to sit at.

Unfortunately, the guy behind me chose that exact moment to do the same thing.

Needless to say, much splattering of milk and juice ensued.

"I'm _sorry,_" he repeated five minutes later, after he, the janitor, and I had all taken turns chewing each other out. Now the janitor was mopping up the mess, while the other students in line were all careful to make their way around him, bemused. I made note of that as I got in line; the guy came in behind me, much to my annoyance.

"Oh, it's perfectly okay," I told him sweetly. "I've only got a cranberry stain in my favorite shirt that's never going to come out no matter how hard I scrub it. It's no trouble."

"Really?" he raised an eyebrow, placing an apple on his tray. "I thought you had hundreds of shirts exactly like that, Misty."

I blinked, hand still hovering over some random food item. Slowly I turned my head towards him, taking his appearance more into account this time.

He was rather tall, though he was probably a year or two younger than me anyway. His hair was spiked in an oddly familiar way, but it was the mischievous twinkle in his eyes that told me just who he was.

"Gary?" I asked tentatively.

His face broke into a grin. "So you _do _recognize me." He glanced behind them. "Want to sit somewhere? We're holding up the line."

Even though I had planned to find Ash somewhere, I nodded anyway, gathering up food on my tray before turning to step out of line, far more slowly and carefully this time. Gary chuckled at this.

Once we had seated ourselves, Gary gave me a few seconds to stare down sadly at my shirt before speaking up. "Maybe we should start those introductions from the top," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "I already know who you are, Gary Oak," I quipped, sipping from my glass of juice.

"Got my name in one!" he laughed. "Although most people call me Professor these days."

He should have known better than to say that when I was drinking.

"… Okay," he stated after a moment, looking down at his soaked shirt. "I guess I should apologize for the stain, then."

"Likewise," I said, even though he probably deserved a better apology from me. I dabbed at my mouth with a napkin before going on, "But seriously? 'Professor'? What are you now, fourteen?"

"Yeah." He nodded redundantly. "Studying Pokemon like Gramps. It probably helps that I knew so much about Pokemon before, back when I was training. Too bad I'm not eighteen yet, or I could be out there doing fieldwork with the rest of the best."

"Aren't you modest."

"Extremely." He smirked. "So what've you been up to?"

"Still a Gym Leader." I swallowed a spoonful of cereal.

"Really?"

"Um, _yes_. We're in my city, it's easy enough to do."

"Fair enough." He took a folded-up newspaper from who knows where and snapped it open with a flourish. "Hm. They _still _don't know who's leading Team Omega? Trainers could probably figure it out in less than a week."

"Omega, huh? Is that what they're calling it now?"

He gave me a strange look. "When _haven't _they been called Omega?"

I didn't reply, thinking over the little I'd bothered to learn about the merged teams. I'd been _positive _their name was Team Ultimatum last week …

"Anyway," he said, looking back at the front-page story, "it looks like they've been attacking Orange Archipelago again. Doesn't look like they've started bombing over there, at least …"

"And nobody's doing anything about it?" I asked angrily, thinking of water Pokemon trying to protect their beach nests from evil thugs.

"The Orange League is, that's for sure. The police are trying to get hold of the terrorists, 'try' being the key word … You know how police are, only able to arrest people. No good at actually _catching_ them at all."

"Oh, do I know," I agreed, remembering my traveling days years ago when Ash and I had been stalked by goons so incompetent that it was astounding the Officer Jennies hadn't managed to seize them.

"Misty?"

"Ash!" I exclaimed, swiveling around in my seat to look at the boy behind me.

While I'd meant to look right into his face, my eyes made their way over to his chest instead – right where I knew his key would be. It was then that it hit me that my good mood was, in some freaky way I couldn't hope to understand, due to that locket incident the other day. I knew it didn't make sense. I knew it was completely stupid to want to do that again.

I also knew that I wanted it anyway.

In my defense, I was a pretty stupid kid back then.

Tearing my gaze upward, I managed an innocent smile and asked, "Have you seen Iris anywhere? I've been wondering what kind of surprise she's trying to pull on me."

He frowned thoughtfully. "Iris?"

"Oh, come on, you've got to know what she's up to. Or has she already headed off to Trig?"

He stared, eyes full of confusion. "Mist … who is Iris?"

"What …" I glanced back at Gary, who didn't seem to have a clue of what we were talking about. "Come on, Ash. _Iris_. My crazy-as-hell roommate? The one you went around Unova with?"

For the first time, I was intensely aware of how jumbled and subdued the noises in the cafeteria were, in spite of all the ridiculous volume everyone used while talking. How had I not noticed it before?

Ash's brow scrunched up, the way it usually does when he's trying and failing to make sense of something. "… I thought I already told you about Whitlea," he said slowly, as if speaking to a little kid. "Her middle name _definitely_ isn't Iris. And since when have you had a roommate? You keep bragging about how you've got a room to yourself …"

Something was very wrong here.

"Ash," I told him, getting out of my chair fast enough to knock in over, "follow me. We need to talk."


End file.
